Help Jess & Sam get to Thailand to teach English!

Hello New Zealand, my name is Jess, I am 21 years old and I am trying to fund raise for my boyfriend Sam and I to help with the costs involved with moving to Thailand for five and a half months to teach English!

Sam and I have both been feeling slightly... lost lately. Not too sure which path we are taking or what exactly our purpose is... Until recently. I was scrolling through my Facebook homepage when an advert came up for The Global Work and Travel co. The headline went a little something like this ... 'teaching opportunities overseas' interested, I clicked 'learn more' and within the next few days we were both signed up and ready to start planning one of the greatest most exciting and also daunting challenges of our lives.

Once we arrive in Thailand our first month will be training (unpaid), once we are done with that the next four and a half months will consist of and teaching English to Thai children, this is paid (although not a lot). Money should not be an issue whilst we are over there as it is cheap to live and we will be earning a small amount to keep us going, we are also currently saving like crazy of course!

However - we are currently needing help actually getting over there as there are a lot of costs involved with going through an agency (programe fees, flights, insurance, visas AND of course vaccines before we leave). We are trying to save as much as we can in a short amount of time and have managed to pay off our programe fees (YAY) with the help of several generous donations already (a MASSIVE THANK YOU to those who have helped us already with your generous donations) but now have our flights, insurance, visas and vaccines on top of that. It is a wee bit more expensive than we had first expected! At this point we are looking at possibly having to push our dates back from October this year - to possible the beginning of next year which we really don't want to have to do. So we would really appreciate the help, any donations are welcome even if it is only $1, it all helps!

This is a really important journey for the both of us not only for the adventure and the experience that we will gain from this, but also due to the fact that by giving these children knowledge and teaching them English we can help to increase their chances of a better and brighter future with more opportunities available to them through having a better education. Education and knowledge is key and very important to ensure these children can go further in life!

We are also really hoping to stay over there for an extra month or more to volunteer within a wildlife sanctuary or animal rescue/shelter to rescue and rehabilitate stray cats and dogs. However, this all depends on funds and whether we can afford an extra month or so worth of rent and food (plus the additional fees involved with going through an agency which is something like $2,500!) . We would really love to give back through volunteering for those whom can not speak for themselves. We know that there is a huge amount of street dogs and cats in Thailand that are all in need of rehabilitation and re homing however there are just not enough hands to help! It would mean so much to us as animal lovers if we were able to afford to stay and volunteer to help animals in need!

There are so many worthy causes on this site, some much more worthier than ours however we would REALLY appreciate any help we can get as we want to help these kiddies have the brightest futures possible! As well as helping the thousands of animals in need! Every dollar counts and we would be extremely greatful for any donation large or small!

Please note that if we raise more than expected and there is money left over once our flights and program fees are paid for, this will NOT be used as 'spending money' for ourselves. We will donate any left over money to either; the school we are working at, to buy the children gifts OR to where ever we end up volunteering.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story! Jess and Sam xx

(Please feel free to share our givealittle page via social media etc if you would like to help us to raise funds for this exciting and rewarding adventure)